Claude Skills: what they are and how to use them

A skill is a set of written instructions you give Claude once, so it does a particular job the same way every time. Think of it as the procedure note you'd write for a new team member: here's the job, here's the order we do it in, here's what to check before you move on, here's what to bring back for review.

Without a skill, you'd explain a conversion from scratch every time you ran one. With a skill installed, you attach the file, say what you want in a sentence, and Claude already knows the steps.

In this article

• Why use one
• What you need first
• Installing a skill
• Using a skill
• The skills we publish
• Making a skill your own
• Building your own
• What skills won't do

Why use one

Skills earn their keep on the jobs you do repeatedly and want done consistently.

• The same result every time. The steps don't drift depending on how you phrased the request that day.
• No re-explaining. The detail that's easy to forget, such as which figures to exclude or what to check before posting, is written down once.
• Your practice's way of working, not a generic one. A skill can encode the conventions your firm has settled on, so everyone gets the same output.
• Anyone on the team can run it. The knowledge sits in the skill rather than in the head of whoever usually does the job.

What you need first

• A Claude account on a plan that includes skills. You'll find them under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.
• The Prosaic connector enabled, for any skill that reads from or writes to Prosaic. See Connecting Prosaic to AI Assistants (MCP).

You only need to set the connector up once. After that it's available in every conversation.

Installing a skill

Our skills come as a zip file you download from the article that describes them.

1. Download the zip and unzip it. You'll get a folder with the skill's name.
2. In Claude, go to Settings → Capabilities → Skills.
3. Upload the folder, not the individual files inside it.

That's it. The skill stays installed, so this is a one-off per skill rather than something you repeat each time you use it.

Using a skill

You don't launch a skill or pick it from a menu. Describe the job in plain language and Claude recognises which skill applies:

Here's the two-year TB for Bright Property Ltd out of Xero. Import it into Prosaic, 31 March year end.

If Claude doesn't seem to be following the skill, name it directly ("use the trial balance import skill"). That's usually enough.

The skills we publish

• Converting chart of accounts templates into Prosaic with Claude turns a Xero or MYOB master chart into a Prosaic chart template. A once-per-template job for the practice.
• Importing conversion balances into Prosaic with Claude turns a client's trial balance into opening and comparative journals. Run per client, once the chart is in place.

They're designed to be used in that order during a conversion, because the first one records the client's original account codes and the second one uses them.

Making a skill your own

A skill is a plain text file. Open the folder you downloaded and you'll find a file called SKILL.md , which you can read and edit in any text editor. It's written in ordinary sentences, not code.

So if our version nearly fits but your practice does something differently, change it. Common examples are naming conventions, which accounts you always want treated a certain way, or an extra check you want done before anything is posted.

The easiest way to edit one is to ask Claude. Attach the skill file and describe the change in plain language, then save what it gives you back and upload the folder again to replace the old version.

Building your own

The best candidates are jobs you already do the same way every time and could describe to a colleague in a few minutes.

1. Pick one job. Narrow beats broad. "Prepare the year-end depreciation journal" works better than "do year end".
2. Talk it through with Claude. Describe the steps, what you check, and what should never happen. Ask it to write the skill for you.
3. Try it on a real job you've already done, so you can compare the result against what you'd have produced yourself.
4. Fix what it got wrong and update the skill. Most skills take a couple of rounds to settle down.

Be explicit about the things that matter. If a step must never happen without your say-so, write that down. If a figure has to balance before anything is posted, say so. Skills are at their best when they carry the judgement you'd apply yourself.

What skills won't do

• They don't have more access than you do. A skill works through the Prosaic connector using your own sign-in, so it can only reach the workspace and entities you can.
• Ours don't post anything without your approval. Journals are created as drafts and mappings are presented for review. You decide what goes in.
• They're not a substitute for checking the work. Review the output the same way you'd review a colleague's.

One thing to avoid: don't put client data, passwords or API keys inside a skill file. A skill should describe the method, not carry the information. The data comes from the file you attach and from Prosaic itself.

Need help?

If you build something useful for your practice, we'd like to hear about it. It may be worth publishing for everyone. Use the 💬 button in the app or email help@prosaic.works.